Review: Terriers 1×1

Nice scripting, shame about the characters

You know, I can remember a time when practically every TV show was about private detectives. Riptide, Tucker’s Witch, Simon and Simon, Magnum PI, The Rockford Files – no one did cops, it was always private detectives. Now they’re rarer than an ice cream at the Arctic.

But look, here comes one! It’s called Terriers and stars Donal Logue (Life, The Knights of Prosperity) as a shabby, unlicensed private detective who deals purely with the small-time – until an old friend asks him to find his daughter. Then things start to get big.

With Ted Griffin (Ocean’s Eleven) and Shawn Ryan (The Shield, The Unit) as exec producers, you’d presumably have high hopes for Terriers. Indeed, it has some fun dialogue, a decent plot and gritty edges. So why has it got the worst launch ratings of any FX show ever and why was I yawning all the way through it?

PlotTerriers from Creator/Executive Producer Ted Griffin (Ocean’s Eleven, Matchstick Men) and Executive Producer Shawn Ryan (The Shield), is a comedic drama starring Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve) and Michael Raymond-James (True Blood). It centers on “Hank Dolworth” (Logue), an ex-cop, who partners with his best friend “Britt Pollack” (Raymond-James) in an unlicensed private investigation business.

Comedic, edgy, original, a show about high stakes in the face of low expectations, Terriers explores what it’s like in today’s America to be “too small to fail.” Co-stars include Laura Allen (Dirt) as “Katie,” Britt’s girlfriend; Rockmond Dunbar (Prison Break) as “Detective Mark Gustafson,” former colleague of Hank; and Jamie Denbo (Weeds) as “Maggie Lefferts,” Hank’s attorney. Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow, The Shield) directed the pilot episode. Terriers is produced by Fox 21.

Is it any good?
Most of the show is good. Terriers looks at people who don’t have a lot of money, aren’t necessarily great at their jobs, and although they’re trying hard, aren’t really succeeding. It’s a nice change from the usual high achievement you see in US TV shows.

I’m not a big Donal Logue fan, but he’s fine. The plotting and the dialogue are fine and the supporting cast is fine. Michael Raymond-James is fine.

Now the plot itself was pretty ordinary. Logue and his partner are doing menial jobs for menial money then have to track down a missing girl, only it turns out she’s gotten mixed up with a powerful man. It’s classic PI stuff – you can’t get more classic PI stuff than that. But as soon as she turned up, it became apparent that she was about 10 million times more interesting than the main characters, which really put things into focus and made me realise why I was bored and uninvolved with the show: the characters just aren’t interesting and despite its alleged comedy-drama status, it’s also not very funny.

Shabby private detective, former cop, down on his luck, has a rocky relationship with his ex-wife and a drink problem: I have seen this character. You’ve seen this character. This character is everywhere. There is literally nothing more than can be said about this character. He cannot be made interesting. Make it a woman and we might be getting somewhere, but it’s not – it’s a guy failing and eeking out an existence while solving crimes.

Done.

Old partner who’s still on the force and has to chew on something other than a cigarette because he’s giving them up? Seen it.

Ex wife who’s trying to move on, but still friends with the detective? Seen it.

There’s nothing new here. With some more interesting characters, particularly female characters, this could have been a good show, but unfortunately, it just isn’t at the moment. So despite the obvious talent that’s gone into the script, it’s a shame to have to say that Terriers is so subdued, low key and unexciting, that despite the ongoing story arc – which does at least promise things might get better – as well as the decent scripting in the other areas, I’m not recommending this. I’ll still watch it to see if it gets better, but honestly I don’t think it will.

Here’s hoping that this won’t stop some more private detective shows from being made.

What you’ve been reading

About TMINE

The Medium is Not Enough is a UK media blog focusing on the best scripted TV from around the world, with daily news, views, exclusive reviews and good conversation. There’s a bit of a bias towards the latest and greatest US TV, but we also cover Scandinavian, Canadian, European, Israeli, Australian and New Zealand TV, as well as both modern and classic UK TV ranging from new Doctor Who to old Z Cars, and BBC Four to S4C. We also cover TV events run by the likes of the BFI, BAFTA and Institut français du Royaume-Uni. Add in film, theatre, art, books, events, competitions and even weekly reviews of Wonder Woman comics, and you’ve (hopefully) got officially the fourth best blog on the web for media lovers. Oh yes, and there’s The Barrometer, the ultimate guide to quality TV.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy

Mark Carroll
Great that nobody was hurt. Does indeed seem an odd target.

TMINEDid it ever return back to the Sherlock Holmes stories? I gave up in season 3 when it just diverged completely and barely referenced them, after which it became just this weirdly weak version of...

TMINEI think the Roku apps are doing as their app developers want. I think both the iPlayer and the TVPlayer app do the same. The STV app/website I think does odd things, too. Have you tried ITV Hub? I...

Craig GrannellI like Elementary, even if its arcs are often crap. (Rare I prefer the procedural element in a show to an ongoing story, but there you go.) Strikes me this is one season too many though. Season 6 is a...

Mark Carroll
We are just back from a school pantomime, goodness. They had put plenty of effort in. A number of the scenes and recurring elements appeared not to bear on the overall plot and my wife and I were...